Farley Family Fun

Cute Kiddos

2011-12-27T12:15:00.002-05:00

Here are some cute ones of the kids I took in September. I love how these turned out.

Trevor - 10th birthday

Cole - 7

This is what Cole does! All. The. Time!

Logan - 5

Grammy

2011-12-27T11:45:00.003-05:00

My mom came to visit in October. The weather was rainy until her last couple of days here, but we still had a great time. This Chinese checker game took them over an hour! Ha!

They had a sleepover in Grammy's room. They played games, stayed up late, and ate healthy snacks from Trader Joe's.

When the weather cleared, they finally ventured to the park at a nearby school.

We went to a beautiful miniature golf course one day for all-you-can-golf. I think we only lasted for two games.

Thanksgiving Costumes

2011-12-27T11:34:00.003-05:00

Right before school let out for Thanksgiving, the school had a dinner for the parents and students. It was really nice. The kids were allowed to dress up that day for school as either a Pilgrim, Indian or Bible character. The night before we were up late trying to figure out how to accomplish this feat.

Logan wanted to be David, as in "David and Goliath." There were actually 5 stones in his sling.

Cole chose to be an Indian, by far an easier way to dress up. We colored his t-shirt with markers.
Trevor was an Indian too. I had him pose as a chief here.

November Pictures

2011-12-27T11:22:00.004-05:00

I had planned to do better blogging, but you know how good intentions are. The pictures on my computer are unorganized, and it's no fun to blog without cute pictures! So I am going to treat you to a couple of random posts of photographs from the last few months. Enjoy!

For Thanksgiving my husband's sister and her family came to visit. It was SO NICE to have them here. (That's a hint for them to come back!) I was having such a good time visiting that my camera only came out once! :( I got this picture of Brooke pushing her cousin Leah in a toy stroller.

Earlier in the month David's parents came for a week. It was good to have them and the kids loved having their grandparents around for a while.

The "men" went to the driving range on the last morning they were here.

We went to a glow golf place at a bowling alley. That was a fun treat!

The Kiddos

2011-12-27T11:10:00.005-05:00

We took these pictures at a mini glow golf last month. You can see that they are growing by leaps and bounds.

Brooke says, "Cheese!" and then really scrunches up her face. It's funny, but makes it hard to get a good picture of her. I'm still trying to find the right word to get her face in a pretty smile!

Trevor - 10

Cole - almost 8

Logan - 5

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T11:03:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

Monkey See. . . Monkey Do

2011-10-07T21:37:00.005-04:00

Brooke is as girly as they come, but she is not planning to be out-done by any of her brothers. If she sees them do something, she wants to do it too. And she usually does! Tonight while we were at the park there were some trail maps. All the boys wanted one (which means Brooke had to have one too.) I turned around to see everyone's progress and thought it was humorous to see Brooke doing what the boys were doing.

The boys were checking out their maps:

Then I saw Brooke; doing the same!

Growing Kids

2011-10-07T21:26:00.004-04:00

I realize it has been a while since I've blogged. (I'm going to try to correct that from here on out.) We had a crazy summer and things are finally getting back to normal for us. I thought I'd start with a few updated pictures of my munchkins, since I'm sure you've missed seeing them.

Brooke turned 2 in June and she adds a certain "sparkle" to our home that we didn't have with just the boys.

Trevor turned 10 last month! He is in fourth grade this year.

Logan is 5 and he started kindergarten in September. He loves it!

Cole is seven and started second grade this fall.

Autumn Day

2011-10-07T21:22:00.002-04:00

We had lovely weather today. For a while we hit a cold, rainy spell, so this warm and sunny weather is such a nice change of pace. We decided to spend the evening checking out a new metro park in our area. We were so glad that we did!

In most of the pictures I caught Brooke looking somewhere else! I've rediscovered what I've known for a long time. . . it is hard to get four kids to look directly at the camera and smile AT THE SAME TIME! Oh well! They are all cute anyway!

Pamela Jean

2011-05-10T16:03:00.002-04:00

My cousin Pam came for a quick visit last night. It was so nice to see her after many years apart. We were always buddies growing up, since we are close in age. We had fun reminiscing about some of our childhood memories.

David enjoyed having her visit as well. Pam has a motorcycle endorsement and of course, David loves motorcycles. They ended up enjoying a ride yesterday.

Pam & Angela

Kissing Cousins? (She caught me off guard with this one!)

Before Pam headed home we went to the duck pond so the kids could see the fish and ducks. This guy was so beautiful. I wish my camera had captured him better. His eyes are red, and his colors were so vibrant. He likes saltine crackers too!

In order from left to right we have Noah, Pam, Charlotte, Brooke and Logan.

I can't wait for our next visit! Love ya, Pam!

My Darlings

2011-05-07T00:02:00.000-04:00

Cole At Bat

2011-05-06T23:58:00.001-04:00

Trevor at Bat

2011-05-06T23:53:00.001-04:00

Easter Fun

2011-05-06T23:23:00.008-04:00

There were several community Easter egg hunts this year, so we took the kids to find some goodies. This egg hunt was at a local retirement/nursing home. Each one of our kids was in a different age bracket, so we ended up going to four different hunts in this same building. (It was pouring rain that day. It's a good thing they have a nice facility.)

This was Brooke's first time to hunt for the eggs. It took her a while to get started, but she was fun to watch.

Logan raked in the goodies!
Trevor was ready to go!
We colored two dozen eggs. 24 eggs sounds like a lot of eggs, but they go really quickly!

And this is why you hard-boil them first! (We had run out of eggs by that point.)

You can always count on Cole to do something silly!
We attended an egg hunt that had over 5000 eggs! It was supposed to be at a football field, but they got rained out. It was held in the gymnasium of the YMCA. All of the kids got a lot of eggs at this hunt!
They were in line for a turn at the bouncy house.
Easter Sunday also turned out to be David's birthday this year. By the time we got church and lunch taken care of, it was getting pretty late. So I did a little egg hunt in the living room for Brooke. Then she went down for a nap so the boys could have their turn.

Ready? Set! GO!

Family Fun

2011-05-06T23:09:00.004-04:00

These photos were taken in March. We were just having a fun time

in the living room as a family.

I was folding laundry and David got a hold of some of it and started messing around. (Does my poor baby girl even stand a chance?!?!) ;-)

(I love David's face in the background of this one!)

We started out swinging the kids in a sheet. Then David decided to do it by himself. Yep! He's macho like that. (And I love it!)

Then it was time for the kids to start climbing on dad.

Brooke wasn't going to be left out of the fun.

Finally, David decided to pick up all the boys. Can you see how thrilled

Logan was with this idea? (Tee-hee!)

I love my family!

Mother-Daughter Banquet

2011-05-06T23:03:00.002-04:00

Tonight was our annual Mother-Daughter Banquet at the church. In years past I've always struggled with going to these banquets. My own mom did not live close by to attend with me, and I didn't have a daughter. I'd go alone, or sit with other ladies, but the simple fact is, nobody else can replace my mom.

Well that has changed and my little Brooke and I went to our second banquet together. The theme was tropical and the decorations were nice. But the best part for me was being able to be there with my little girl. I'm so thankful that God has allowed me to be a mother. And I'm especially thankful today that He gave me an adorable little girl to go to banquets with me!

A Nice Day

2011-04-02T22:03:00.002-04:00

We had a nice, productive day today. This morning we got the boys' rooms cleaned, reorganized and rearranged. This job is not for the faint of heart, folks! It is such a relief to walk in and see things where they belong. How long this will last, I don't know, but I'm going to enjoy it while it's here!

We went to the city to do a bit of shopping. While we were there David wanted to go to Cici's Pizza for lunch. The kids loved having all-you-can-eat pizza and brownies. While we were there looking at our good, happy children, David said, "I love my family." What a sweet thing to say.

And now the kids are all tucked in and the lights are out. It's supposed to be quiet, but Trevor is in his own room listening to a Patch the Pirate CD and singing along rather loudly, "When sin comes knocking at your door, put on your running shoes, Mate." He's being such a blessing to this momma's heart, I just can't seem to go in there and tell him to be quiet. So I'm going to listen to his serenade while I finish blogging and start putting some more laundry away.

Good night! I hope you have a blessed Lord's day tomorrow!

A Day Outdoors

2011-03-19T20:45:00.006-04:00

We had a decent day weather-wise on Thursday. The boys spent some time playing catch and batting baseballs with David. I went walking with Brooke up the hill by our church. It was a bit windy and we needed jackets, but it was nice to be outdoors again after a long winter. When I realized there were going to be a lot of good photo-ops, I went back to the house for my camera. I took some fun pictures of the cutest kids I've ever seen. ;-)

My Three Sons

And here's a bonus photo from the other night. Brooke loves to "hide" behind her hands these days. It's too cute!

Logan

2011-03-19T20:39:00.004-04:00

Here's my Logan. He loves his momma so much he's always giving me slobbery kisses.

He really wanted to play "hockey" with his dad the other day.

Trevor

2011-03-19T20:32:00.003-04:00

Trevor is just getting to be a big boy. He's handy to have around the house because he can do things that big boys can do.

Cole

2011-03-19T20:27:00.002-04:00

Here are some random photos of our Cole Boy.

We're playing Pictureka. It's fun!

He's been a real sweetheart lately, giving me a lot of notes like this one:

To Whet Your Appetite

2011-03-18T10:35:00.001-04:00

I finally found my camera card. We played outside with the kids yesterday, and even though it was windy, we had a good time. I grabbed my camera and made the kids do all kinds of poses. I don't have time to post a bunch right now, but here's a good one of the four of them together.

Here He Is

2011-03-18T10:33:00.003-04:00

Here's Cole, in his toothless glory:

He lost the other front tooth well. Hopefully those two front teeth will come in before Christmas! :-)

Brooke Says. . .

2011-03-03T08:39:00.005-05:00

Brooke says a lot of things these days. Of course, with her baby talk, things don't always come out the way they are supposed to. But that just makes it so much more fun to listen to her.

She says a lot of words, but here are some of the things she says, with the phonetic pronunciations after them:
shoe - who
sock - hock
spoon - Poon (She really pronounces the "P.")
Logan - Ya-Ya
Trevor - Ya-Ya
Amen - A-Nen
cup - cuk
book - boop
Thank you - day-du
Brooke - Bee
please - deez

Our favorites are the "S" words. She doesn't say the "S" sound. We always tease about getting our "hocks and whose" before we leave the house.

Brooke found this 2 liter and had the best time carrying it around the kitchen. It was pretty funny listening to her grunt and groan as she would pick up the bottle from the ground.

Here's Brooke trying to follow in her daddy's footsteps . . . . literally.

Too cute for words!

Finally!

2011-03-03T08:34:00.002-05:00

Cole's first tooth finally came out Sunday night! He was so exited! Earlier that day I tried to talk him into letting me tie a string around his tooth, so he could pull it easily. He wanted nothing to do with that!

After he went to bed and the lights were out, he came running to me to show me his little baby tooth. It had finally come out. I do have pictures of his toothless grin, but sadly, I can't find my little camera card. Cleaning off my computer desk is on my "To-Do" list today, so maybe I'll edit this post later with a cute picture of our new toothless wonder.

Ice Cream and Playdough

2011-02-22T14:35:00.003-05:00

David brought some ice cream home the other day and we've been enjoying that tasty treat for a few days. It always amazes me that babies know what the good stuff is. And I don't mean the good-for-you-healthy-stuff. I mean the stuff that is yummy on your taste buds!

David had given Brooke some ice cream but it was all gone. I was touched that Logan was willing to share his with his sister. (Face it, Folks! Momma wasn't even gonna share that stuff with the baby!) I know these photos aren't the best quality, but put together, you can see how the ice cream sharing went.

When Nana was here in October she made the kids playdough. It smells like Thanksgiving. Seriously! The playdough has cinnamon, cloves, & nutmeg. . . all the traditional pumpkin pie spicess. She'll be happy to know that the kids have been playing with the dough again lately.

Sunday Photos

2011-02-22T14:29:00.003-05:00

While everyone was spiffed up, I wanted to get pictures of the kids. Somehow Trevor and Logan disappeared, so I just got Cole and Brooke. Cole was having such fun posing with his sister.

I'm really enjoying my Sunday School class. I told the story of the feeding of the five thousand. I was trying to think of a good illustration and here's what I came up with:

Five loaves and two fishes - John 6

The kids loved it!

Play Time

2011-02-22T13:48:00.003-05:00

The other day we went to the mall for a while. David had some errands to run, so the kids and I took a walk through the mall. There were some nice, shiny cars in the mall that day and the boys loved the Corvette there.

Our mall has a nice little kiddie playland inside and the kids enjoyed running, romping and going crazy while I watched.

Winter

2011-02-22T13:44:00.002-05:00

I guess winter isn't over after all. That dumb groundhog got my hopes up! We had some spring weather last week so I was quite surprised to see snowflakes coming down yesterday afternoon. I was even more surprised that it was sticking to the ground. We figure we got 6 - 8 inches last night.
Of course, the kids are very excited about this.

A Slight Misunderstanding

2011-02-21T09:19:00.002-05:00

Today is President's day and we do not have school. Last night we were in the kitchen talking about our day off. Cole said, "What kind of presents are we gonna get?" David and I were both a little confused and asked Cole to repeat himself. Cole said, "For PRESENTS DAY? What presents are we gonna get?"

Yes, he got a brief history lesson after that comment!

Happenings

2011-02-17T10:02:00.004-05:00

Things have been going well at our house. The kids are all growing so quickly and they are truly a joy to be around.

We had a fun Valentine's day. I made heart-shaped cookies and rice crispie treats. They were a big hit, along with the little Valentine goodie bags the kids received.

Trevor is doing very well in school. He's getting ready to learn division and he's actually excited about it! (I think that's because he hasn't actually started yet!) He is such a good boy and is really growing up fast. Trevor's a good helper. With the cold winter days on us, I've been teaching the boys how to help a lady with her coat. I love it when Trevor brings my coat to me and holds it open so I can put it on. Trevor is also very good about opening my door for me at the van. He's definitely a keeper.

Cole is growing up as well. He's becoming less little boy and more big boy every day. He has a tender heart and still favors his little sister. He is seven and hasn't lost any teeth yet, and let me tell you, it is killing him! He has two loose teeth on the bottom of his mouth and he just can not wait for them to fall out! I think he's the last of his friends to lose a tooth, so he is really anxious for this milestone to happen. David was just commenting on how tall Cole is. I think he's definitely shot up lately.

Logan is almost 5 years old. He seems to be going through a growth spurt and soon I'll need to get more clothes for him in the next size up. Next year I'll be home schooling Logan for kindergarten, but this year we're enjoying easy days around the house. Logan is such a fun little boy. The other day he had a Transformer toy and was trying to transform it. He gave it to me and asked me to help him with the head. I struggled for a while then finally said, "Logan, Mom just doesn't know how to do these things." He looked at me and said, "Maybe if it was a beginner one you could do it, Mom." What a vote of confidence! Ha!

Today we're expecting temperatures in the 60's. In honor of these almost-spring days, I decided to get out the polish and paint Brooke's little toes. Aren't they adorable? Since she's been wearing tights all winter long I haven't bothered to paint her toenails for a while. But now that spring is here, I'm looking forward to keeping up with her little pedicures.

Brooke is all girl, and I am just thrilled about that! She loves to put one of my necklaces on and wear it around the house. Of all her toys, Brooke plays with her tea set every day. I think that is the cutest thing. She is learning new words all the time and her little girly voice saying, "Okay!" is so cute!

Here is an example of a conversation we have with Brooke almost every day:

Boys: Brooke, say "Da-da."

Brooke: Da-da.

Dad: Brooke, say "Momma."

Brooke: Ma-mom

Mom: Brooke, say "Cole."

Brooke: Co

Boys: Brooke, say "Logan."

Brooke: Ya-Ya

Boys: Say "Trevor."

Brooke: Ya-Ya

We laugh every time and then tease Trevor and Logan about their new names.

I really hope the weather hasn't been teasing us. It is so pleasant outside. There are just a few patches of snow on the ground here and there, but none at our house. I was outside without a jacket today. David pulled his motorcycle out of the barn and has been giving the kids rides around the lane. It is really idyllic. I'm looking forward to spending some time in the yard soon.

EE-i-EE-i-O

2011-02-17T09:12:00.003-05:00

I made this video of Brooke making animal sounds a couple of weeks ago. She is too much fun!

(In case you're wondering, the dog says, "F-F." Brooke makes the "F" sounds at the end of "woof-woof.")

For Grammy - Legos

2011-01-28T12:33:00.004-05:00

My mom has a thing about Legos. She loves them! Whenever we spend time with Grammy, you can bet that a table full of Legos (or a sheet outdoors) is somehow involved! For Christmas she sent money for the boys to get . . . . Legos, of course!

I have to say that I am amazed at the good job my boys do with those things! Trevor is 9 and completely built this tractor on his own. Before it was a tractor it was an impressive dune buggy.

Cole built the motorcycle without help!

They thought they should pose with their creations. Already the motorcycle is no more. . . . it's been dismantled so they can build something else.

7-Years-Old

2011-01-28T12:24:00.004-05:00

Cole turned seven a couple of weeks ago. I always felt bad that his birthday was 2 weeks after Christmas. To be honest, I am about partied-out by that point! But the night before I hung the balloons and streamers in the dining room like I always do, and was rewarded when he came downstairs with a big smile.

We started the morning with one present before school.

After dinner we decided to go to Slinky's. The kids love to play in this giant playland. (Like a McDonald's play place, only much, much bigger!) We all got ready to go then Cole opened his gifts.

I decided to save the Sunday comics for some wrapping paper, that way all of his gifts wouldn't be wrapped in Christmas paper. Hee-hee! I'm not only frugal but green as well! :-)

Cole got a nice set of walkie-talkies. Logan calls them "talkie-walkies," which I think is

just too cute!

It was late when we got back from Slinky's, so we ate ice cream cake in our jammies.

We're thankful that seven years ago, God gave us this handsome boy. We love him very much!

Tea, Anyone?

2011-01-13T18:49:00.002-05:00

While we were in Indiana Brooke just loved playing with my niece's little kitchen set. She seemed to know automatically what to do with all those dishes and pretend foods. I was so delighted! It's so much fun having a girly-girl! :)

I decided then and there that Brooke would be getting a kitchen and dishes for her birthday. We went to the grocery store Sunday night for an emergency diaper run. They were clearancing their Christmas toys for 75% off! They even had a purple tea set. I snatched up those little dishes right then, and I was so excited! I thought about keeping them for Brooke's birthday, but then I thought to myself, "They cost me $1.74!" So I opened that package and my little girl spent a half hour with her dishes. So cute!

Everyday since then, Brooke has spent time with her little tea set.

Where Do I Begin?

2011-01-13T17:59:00.007-05:00

It seems like I've taken a month-long hiatus from blogging. The truth is, once you get behind, it's hard to know where to pick up again.

We had a wonderful Christmas here at the house. The kids loved their gifts, and us parents enjoyed watching them tear into things. I made a simple dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, veggies and rolls.

Brooke turned 18-months old on Christmas day. It's hard to believe that she's already been with us a year-and-a-half. Sometimes I can't remember life without her, and other times it seems we just got our precious, little girl.

Here's the aftermath of our Christmas celebration:

The Monday after Christmas we made a rather impromptu decision to drive all the way to Indiana to visit my husband's family! We didn't hit the road until 3 in the afternoon, but we got there before midnight. It was quite a trip. We stayed until Saturday morning. Thankfully our road trips were uneventful. Here are some scenes from our visit with David's family:

(Not really sure how David and Sandra ended up on the kitchen floor!)

My sister-in-law Kat mentioned having an early birthday celebration for Cole. That was so thoughtful of her.

I love this picture of Cole! He could barely contain his excitement!

Kit & Cole - cousins

While in Indiana I got to see one of my dear friends from college. Megan and I traveled together in a summer tour group.

Here are two of the "original" Farley boys:

All of the cousins are in this picture except for little Brienna.

Here's a picture of the girl cousins:

My Logan

Uncle David is a hit with the kids. (Probably because he can play like the best of them!)

Sleepy boys

On the way home we stopped in Ohio to visit with David's younger brother John and his family.

There's little Brienna, with Amber and John, of course!

Merry Christmas Editing!

2010-12-11T16:27:00.001-05:00

I was editing some photos today and got to having too much fun! :)

Nodding Her Head

2010-12-07T16:55:00.003-05:00

Brooke's latest cute stunt is to nod her head. You wouldn't think nodding your head up and down could be so cute, but if you're just 17 months old, it's adorable! Brooke nods her head so vigorously when you ask her questions. Here's a clip of her at the dinner table.

The boys like to ask Brooke silly questions. She'll nod her head up and down (because she doesn't know how to nod the other way) and the boys will giggle with glee. They'll say, "Do you want to pick your nose, Brookie?" And she'll nod her head up and down. Or they will say, "Do you like your stinky diaper, Brooke?" And she will nod her head up and down. The boys go into gales of laughter, and Brooke just smiles and smiles, because everyone around her is having such a good time. I'm enjoying these precious days.

Brooke

2010-12-07T16:41:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday was the first official Sunday in December. I took advantage of that and had Brooke wear her Christmas dress this week. Isn't it beautiful? I went shopping after Christmas last year specifically to find a dress with white fur on it. (Don't worry. . . no animals were harmed in the making of this dress! Tee-hee!)

And here's a bonus picture of our little Brooke. She's so much fun these days. The other day the boys were all gathered around her trying to get her to nod her head at their silly nonsense. She was having the time of her life, like a princess with her royal subjects. David looked at me and said, "She is going to be SO SPOILED!" I just laughed! Every little princess needs some spoiling, don't you think?

Trimming The Tree

2010-12-07T16:16:00.003-05:00

The Monday after Thanksgiving we decided to set up our Christmas tree. The boys had the day off of school, and were so excited about getting ready for Christmas. We were getting things back into shape after having company, so I told the boys they had to get their rooms cleaned first. They were so excited to set up the Christmas tree, that they cleaned their rooms quickly and without any fuss!

I know you should hang the stockings by the chimney with care, but at our house the chimney is in use! We hung the kid's stockings in the living room doorway.

Somebody was taking a break!
We each had jobs. Cole's job was to test the lights.

Logan used my $8 vacuum to clean up some of the tree needles for me.

Trevor helped me get the lights on the tree and plugged in.

FINALLY! They got to start hanging ornaments.

Here's our finished tree. Later we went to Wal-Mart and bought a star for the top. Growing up we always had angels on top of the tree, but this year I wanted to try something different.

When we were all done I said, "Hmmm. . . . something's missing. . . ." Then I went to my stash and put some presents under the tree. If I had thought the boys were excited before, they were doubly excited after they saw the presents!

Spirit Week

2010-11-30T15:32:00.003-05:00

The week of Thanksgiving they had Spirit Week at the school. The first day was Crazy Day. You could include, backwards, crazy hair/hat day, inside-out day, etc. . . . Pretty much anything goes. This is what the boys came up with:

We got these wigs for 60 cents after Halloween. What a steal, huh?

Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T14:59:00.007-05:00

We had a great time with David's brother Bill and his family last week. They got in Tuesday afternoon and left Saturday afternoon. We were able to spend Thanksgiving with them. It was really nice to have family around for the holiday.

We didn't really "do" a whole lot. Well, we ATE a lot! ;-) A lot of Super Mario was played on the wall with a projector. And when the kids went to bed the adults played games. Other than than, just being together was nice.

The Boy Cousins

For a while, Uncle Bill had the kids lined up against a wall in the living room. They played "Dodge Nerf." He would shoot Nerf bullets and the kids would try not to get shot. It was fun to watch. Finally the kids decided that Uncle Bill should be against the wall, and THEY should get to do the shooting! That was even more fun to watch! ;-)

Pretty soon we had a full-blown wrestling match with the dads and the kids. Are you surprised? I'm not. I was only surprised that they waited 4 whole days to start their wrestling match!

On the last day the kids played with the Legos in the living room, while David and Bill installed a new upstairs toilet! (Loud, 'Hooray!" from us on the new toilet!)

Brooke was on the phone.

This is Ethan, my newphew.

Cole and Kit - they are exactly two months apart in age.

Ethan and Logan are 3 weeks apart.

Good-bye Uncle Bill and Aunt Katharine

Sunday Pictures

2010-11-30T14:38:00.006-05:00

My camera's been getting dusty lately. Sunday morning I determined to get some nice photos of the kids while they were all cleaned up and ready for church.

I like this picture because you can see Brooke's little pony tail. She wouldn't put that dog down all morning.

They are a handsome (and pretty) bunch, aren't they?

It's Been Awhile. . . .

2010-11-27T22:54:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile since I've been on the blog. Things have been busy around here, but that is not my only excuse. A couple of weeks ago my computer got bit. . . . by a nasty bug! It was not pretty. We ended up having to take our computer to get fixed. That was a sad day. :)

So now I'm thinking about the blog posts I need to update you on. I will probably pick and choose, because a lot of things have happened since the last time I blogged. Let me think of a few for you to whet your appetite. . . .

*We got our first snow today - the day after Thanksgiving! Nothing stuck to the ground, but it was fun and SUPER exciting for the kids to watch those flakes coming down from the sky.

*My husband's brother and his family came to our home for Thanksgiving. We were so blessed to have them and we love them a lot. I'll definitely be posting some pictures of our days together. (Though I admit, we had so much fun the camera didn't even come out for a few days. We were too busy enjoying the company.)

* I went Black Friday shopping. . . .at midnight! I went with my brother and sister-in-law. It was perfect! It curbed my appetite for the busy shopping of Black Friday, I got some great deals, and didn't have to leave the house at 3 in the morning!

* The kids have been growing up. Brooke is developing more and more each day. She's expanding her vocabulary right now, and it's such fun to hear her try new words. The boys are enjoying their Thanksgiving vacation and keeping me busy, as usual.

Soon I'll fill you in on the details, but for now I trust that you had a blessed and happy Thanksgiving day. Now on to the next food-filled holiday! :)

Going' To Town!

2010-11-09T11:16:00.003-05:00

I thought you might enjoy this little video of Brooke on her rocking giraffe. That girl goes to town on that thing!

(Jessica, can you hear Logan in the background saying, "Wica! Wica! Wica!" ???)

A Day In The City

2010-10-18T18:46:00.011-04:00

After we dropped David's mom off at the airport on Saturday, we decided to do a bit of sight-seeing in Pittsburgh. It turned out to be a pretty day. If the wind wasn't blowing you didn't even need a jacket.

The first thing we did was use the Duquesne Incline. It is an old cable car that goes up a mountain. The view of Pittsburgh was spectacular from there. Pittsburgh is called the city of bridges, and you can see many, many of those bridges from the top of that hill.

Here's one of the cable cars we rode.

During the spring and summer seasons, there's a fountain out at the end of that point.

There's the stadium where the Steelers play.

This is the view from the bottom of the incline.

Going back up!

Undoubtedly the highlight of our day was seeing the Steeler's stadium. It is beautiful! The grounds, the flowers, the whole thing.

The Panthers also play at this stadium.

Some guy that must've coached players! LOL

The view of Heinz Field from the top of the Duquesne Incline.

50-yard line

TOUCHDOWN!

End Zone

As you can see, I threw caution to the wind and donned the gold and black!

Great Hall

After the stadium we walked along the riverfront.
There was a nice little monument to policemen near the river.

This might be the ugliest statue I've ever seen! Can you guess who it is? Look closely. . .
Do you recognize the sweater and shoes?

It's a tribute to Mr. Rogers!

Me and Pittsburgh - commonly called Pitts around here.

Hubba! Hubba! ;-)

The boys will take any chance to climb on something, even if it is just a bicycle stand!

Here's a view of the incline we had taken earlier in the day. It's kind of neat that we started out day on the top of that mountain.

Trevor's getting old enough to take some pretty good photographs.

I think that's Fort Pitt Bridge in the background.

There's a submarine outside the Carnegie Science Center.

Nana Time

2010-10-18T16:26:00.007-04:00

David's mom came for a quick visit this past week. We crammed in as much time with Nana as we could. She and the kids made two different kinds of play dough, played with shaving cream, did many word searches, walks, football games and more. Of course she made us some real Italian pizza on her last night here. Here are a few pictures from her visit.

We took David's mom for a drive up the mountain. The leaves were just beautiful.

Playing with shaving cream!

They decided to pull up chairs near the wood stove. It was nice and cozy in the kitchen that morning.

Nana insisted on putting a quarter in this ride for Brooke. That poor little Brookie was nearly scared out of her wits! Nana quickly grabbed her, and Brooke held on for dear life!

So precious!

The highlight for David might have been convincing his mom to go for a ride. It was just around the parking lot! But hey! She did go for a ride with him.

Good-bye!

The Creator's Handiwork

2010-10-18T16:16:00.003-04:00

God sure does good work, doesn't He? It has been so beautiful around here lately with the autumn colors on the hills and mountains around us. Some of the hills looked as if they were on fire, there was so much red and orange to see. It's just been gorgeous. I'm thankful our Creator gave us so much beauty to enjoy during this fall season.

Genesis 8:22 - While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Roaring Spring Photos

2010-10-09T13:22:00.005-04:00

I mentioned in the previous post that I took a lot of photos at the Roaring Spring. I did not edit all of them! I'm still new to the editing phenomenon, so I grew weary after a while of fixing, cropping and enhancing. Here are some regular photos I took -- what you see is what you get! We had a great time with our children. God has been good to us to bless us with our healthy, happy little crew.

In case you get confused, this is not the happy crew! ;)

These were some of the hungry ducks. We fed them oyster crackers and potato chips.

Brooke wasn't too sure about this tree idea!

Make a silly face!

We finally gave up trying to get everybody looking, smiling, holding still at the same time!

The boys found some big sticks to play with. (Now why didn't I think of getting some free sticks out of the woods for their birthdays?!?!) They used them as canes, spears, slingshots, bridges, etc. . . It seems there's no end to their imaginations.

Little Brooke climbed up these amphitheater"steps" on her own! She was quite determined. We had so much fun listening to her grunt and struggle her way up each step. When she made it to the top we clapped and she clapped right along with us.

Pretty Photos

2010-10-08T21:25:00.002-04:00

We went to the Roaring Spring fountain today and it was so pretty. I took over a hundred photographs and then came home and did some photo editing.

ENJOY!

There was a rainbow in the fountain. It was gorgeous!

Walking Babe

2010-10-01T21:52:00.002-04:00

Here's another video of Brooke taking some steps. This was two weeks ago so she's still a bit wobbly in the video.

Notice the sock in her mouth. Cole did the same thing with socks when he was a baby. Yesterday I went into her room and she had pairs of socks strewn all over the place. Cracks me up! This is just another one of her little quirks that I love so much.

A Fun Night

2010-10-01T21:40:00.004-04:00

I had a good evening with the boys tonight. David is out of town with some of the teenagers so it's just me and the boys -- and the baby girl, of course. Tonight I let the boys make their own pizzas. I cheated a little bit and bought three mini pizza crusts. Then we gathered the toppings and the boys set to work.

Logan's pizza was heavy on the olives, Cole's was heavy on the pineapples, and Trevor's was heavy on everything!

They were proud of their finished products.

Logan begged me to get a picture of him with his cheesey pizza.

As if that wasn't enough fun, after dinner we made fun balloon crafts. I found these crafts clearanced at Wal-Mart for an unbelievable price. The boys had so much fun making peacocks, flamingos, penguins, parrots and more.

Now the boys are in Cole & Logan's room, having a sleepover in a make-shift tent. I don't hear any signs of their silliness dying down just yet. It's been a fun night!

Papa Bear

2010-10-01T21:36:00.002-04:00

Trevor's been practicing on his Heely's and he's getting better at it every day. He made me laugh so hard today though, when he did this. . .

Brooke

2010-10-01T21:27:00.002-04:00

Brooke is so cute! (And it's not because I am a biased momma!) She is walking very well now, and has such a pleasant personality. She does have her quirks though. She has a thing with the instant Cream of Wheat packets. It's quite funny, actually. She loves to open that cupboard, take the packets out of the box and scatter them around the kitchen. Then if I give her the box she will try to put them back in.
I haven't decided if I should nip this little habit in the bud yet or not. On the one hand, it's nice to have her occupied while I get Sunday dinner ready. On the other hand, I do not look forward to the day when one of those packets breaks open!

Here she is with her hero, her daddy. (Who just so happens to be an official licensed motorcyclist!)

Trevor's Ninth Birthday

2010-10-01T21:09:00.005-04:00

It's been a couple of weeks since Trevor turned nine-years-old. For some reason October sneaked up on me before I got the chance to blog about his birthday. Trevor's birthday landed on a Sunday this year. Sundays aren't the best days for celebrating. We have church morning and evening, and David has been running a van route, so that makes our afternoons a bit shorter still. We planned a two-day celebration for Trevor this year, and he was all for it!

David was gone on Saturday morning, so we planned to meet up in the afternoon. Trevor brought one of his presents and we started the celebration by opening it in the van! He was so excited to get a pair of Heely's from his Aunt Cindy.

He's doing pretty well skating around our dining room now. (More to follow on that subject later.)

Next we went to Toys R Us so Trevor could spend his birthday money. The boys are getting old enough now that they like having the chance to pick out some of their own things. It's always fun to watch them buy things. Trevor got a nice remote control car and a Transformer.

Afterwards the boys really wanted to go to a play place called Slinky's. (Did you know that the actual Slinky toy was invented in Pennsylvania and has its roots in a town near us?) Anyway, Slinky's has a great big playland, similar to what you might see at a McDonald's restaurant. Only bigger. Much bigger! The boys love going there to play. So that's where we spent most of our Saturday celebration.

Brooke played very well in the little toddler area. She even learned to climb up by herself, then bounce enough on the edge of the small slide to make herself slide down.

Trevor stopped for a brief moment so I could take his photo.

I still don't think it's fair that only people under the age of 14 can play in the ball pit!

Trevor and David got suited up for a game of laser tag. They loved it!

Sunday afternoon Trevor was ready to RIP into the presents. And I do mean "RIP!"

Trevor requested an ice cream cake this year. I made this one out of ice cream sandwiches. It was quite good!

My Brooke

2010-09-16T13:53:00.002-04:00

Last night my Brooke was just so adorable! She had on such a cute dress, ruffly socks (which she hasn't worn all summer!), a flower in her hair, etc. . and she just looked so girly. On top of all that she was just being so sweet and lovely! I couldn't get enough of her.

Here she is with her nursery buddy, Alyssa.

David and I both got a little worried this week when we had gone out to dinner with the family. A lady walked past and commented on the fact that we finally had a little girl after three boys. (This kind of thing happens to us all the time.) She mentioned that she had also had three boys and a girl. Then with a rather dour expression on her face she said, "The girl's the one that'll give ya trouble!"

At this moment, I don't believe her! Look at this cute little thing! I sure hope that my Brooke can prove her wrong. :)

On The Go!

2010-09-16T10:53:00.002-04:00

In this video you can see Brooke taking some wobbly steps. She might've gotten farther if she had both shoes on! :) (And if I'd cleared the toys out of the way.) She's such fun to watch and the boys get SO VERY EXCITED when they see her stepping around the house.

Enjoy!

More Cute Pictures

2010-09-14T09:50:00.002-04:00

I love reading blogs. You can do some serious blog-hopping these days, and it is so much fun!

There are so many different types of blogs. Some are informative, others are thought-provoking, and some are there to give you good ideas. I use my blog as a journal. It's an easy way to record memories and keep family up-to-date with our children.

Thanks to my good friend Amy I discovered a new blog called 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time. Wow! I had fun glancing at this lady's blog the other day! That's where I got this idea for Logan. He had a great time stringing the cereal onto pipe cleaners.

Of course the best part of this project is getting to eat the Fruit Loops!

Logan was so excited to finish his Fruit Loop pipe cleaner.

He took it next door to show Dad, then came back home,

sat at the table, and started chomping away.

My Cole is undoubtedly the "class clown" of our family.

He has quite a sense of style, don't you think?

Stay tuned. Sunday is Trevor's ninth birthday. I'm sure we'll have plenty of fun pictures to post of our birthday boy. Since his birthday is on a Sunday we'll probably do most of our partying on Saturday. That'll give him a two-day celebration this year!

Not a bad deal, don't you think?

A Common Sight

2010-09-14T09:46:00.002-04:00

This is now a common sight in our house:

Brooke is loving the stairs. I've been tempted to gate the stairs off to keep her safe. But since we live in a house with stairs - 16 of them, to be exact! - I figure she might as well learn how to use them! She is doing a great job, and so far we haven't had any spills. Can you tell that she is pretty proud of her accomplishment?

Fabulous Fun

2010-09-10T10:31:00.003-04:00

Last night we loaded into David's truck and did some driving over the mountain behind our house. David kicked it into 4-wheel drive and we had a good time, bouncing all over the gravel and holes. These are actually state game lands in that mountain with a gravel road to drive. But it is clearly not maintained by PenDot! LOL

Brooke was ready for Daddy to load her into the truck.

Our church can be seen through that small hole in the trees. (on the left)
The pretty German house in our neighborhood. You can see it from any location in our town.

You can see our brick house and our church in the middle of this photo. In the grand scheme of things they seem so small.

Martinsburg

Here's Brooke with her Nikes. :)

We stopped on the road and the boys had fun climbing this rocky hill. When they got to the top they threw rocks and discovered that they would spark when they hit each other! That was so much fun for them!

A Mish-Mash of Pictures - DC Trip

2010-09-10T09:56:00.008-04:00

This post is just a compilation of various photos of our trip. They're in chronological order, and represent many of the things we saw that day.

Potomac

A building dedicated to the women of the Civil War

Double Decker Tour Bus

Bathroom near the Washington Monument - You can see the Capitol Building in the background.

There were quite a few kites flying on the National Mall.

Peek-a-boo!

Weeee!

Part of the Smithsonian

Yep - there's even a carousel on the National Mall.

Only the Smithsonian people would consider this art!

U.S. Botanic Gardens

Leaving the Capitol Building behind, the boys had to climb up on the stonework.

Near Grant's Memorial

Capitol Reflecting Pool

White House

I asked the boys what their favorite parts of Washington D.C. were. Cole replied, "I liked all of it. Except the walking!"

Such a beautiful picture. We think that maybe our next overnight trip will be to Washington D.C. I'd love to be there at night to see the reflectings pools, and the pretty lights of the city.

Worn Out!

Washington Monument - DC

2010-09-10T09:35:00.006-04:00

The first thing you can see when you approach our capital city is the Washington Monument. It's amazing. It's spectacular. It's really cool! We parked as close as we could, (which was not very close at all!) and walked straight for that monument. Whoever designed that monument probably didn't think of how handy it would be for future visitors. You can just look up into the sky, find the monument, and easily get your bearings!

We all really enjoyed the Washington Monument. You can get tickets to go inside, but we are saving that for another time. I tried to teach the boys about the Washington Monument that day. Now they can recognize it by sight.

This was my first glimpse.

I never knew there were flags at the bottom like that. I love it! So patriotic!

Finally! We were getting close to it.

This is the Commerce Building.

Glancing back I saw the World War II Memorial. We never made it to that one.

I saw the Capitol Building and had to get a creative picture. I love seeing the building between the American flag.

Trevor David

Trevor (in the background), Logan Joseph, & Cole Patrick

Somebody offered to take a picture of our whole family. Yes, I worried if they would run off with our camera! (hee-hee!)

I just love all the flags circling the Washington Monument.

It's just beautiful, isn't it?

After this, we headed down the National Mall towards the Capitol Building. Brooke quickly tired of the stroller so Daddy obliged her and put her on his shoulders. Nah! She doesn't have him wrapped around her finger at all!

The White House - DC

2010-09-10T09:28:00.002-04:00

After we'd been in D.C. for a while, we realized we were not going to make it back to our van before our meter expired. We were over a mile away from the van and we were on foot! Oops! We just hoped that our van would be there, and that it would be there without a ticket on the windshield!

After we saw the Declaration of Independence, we decided to split up. David took Trevor and Cole and they RAN all the way back to the van, so that they could feed the meter. I walked at a slower pace with Logan, Brooke and the stroller. It was during this walk that I finally saw the White House! I had wondered why all this grassy area was fenced off. And why people were standing there in big groups. It was then that I noticed the White House.
Did you know that you can enlarge these photos if you simply click on them? Click on these and you will see a man standing on the top of the White House. It looked like he was standing near a tripod. Perhaps he was watching us, just as we were watching him!

There is a big iron fence around the White House. This is as close as you can get.

Capitol Building - DC

2010-09-09T16:40:00.004-04:00

The second thing that we saw on Saturday was the U.S. Capitol Building. It was amazing! It's just beautiful. We started our day near the Washington Monument (pictures to come soon!) and then we walked down to the Capitol. We didn't realize how far apart the two icons were. I've tried figuring it out on the internet and my best guess is it's between 1 - 1.5 miles. Our boys walked all that way and did a great job.

This was my first view of the Capitol. I was standing next to the Washington Monument when I took this picture.

All down the middle of the National Mall people were busy playing football, frisbee football, rugby, etc. . . . How awesome it would be to play outdoor games with the Capitol Building right in your sights!

Here we are: so close, and yet so far away!
The Capitol Reflecting Pool

It was a beautiful day. The sky behind the Capitol just sets it off beautifully.

The pretty stonework at the gateway to the Capitol Building.

We're getting closer!

We made it!

Brooke didn't last through the long walk! But she can honestly say she's been to the Nation's capital!

As I was sitting on the steps I could see how far we'd come. (And dread how far we had to walk to get back!)

Trevor was the photographer for this photo. Logan kept trying to steal kisses, each time David wanted one. It was so much fun being fought over by two of my guys! :)

David wanted to run up and down the steps. There were security guards behind those railings, to keep visitors at bay. Then we saw something. A man WAS jogging up and down the steps! So David walked up to the security guard and asked if he could have a turn. The man said, "No." David said, "But THAT guy is!" And the security guard replied, "That man works here!" Ha! I guess that jogger doesn't need a gym membership!

On A Roll

2010-09-09T16:32:00.002-04:00

I am on a roll, Ladies and Gentlemen! I've been following My Blessed Life for a while. Recently Myra had a giveaway, and would you believe it? I was the winner!!!!! I won a $35 gift certificate to the Marie Madeline Studio. I chose for the Long ladies to make me this Bianca handbag. I had so much fun choosing my own colors. I got the handbag in the mail today and just love it! It's so cute!
The inside even has a couple of pockets. It's very well-crafted, and I am pleased as punch to have won another blog giveaway.

The Two-Step

2010-09-07T19:37:00.005-04:00

Guess what?

Brooke took two steps tonight!

All by herself!

We were all so excited!

You should have seen the boys clapping and cheering for her as she "walked" to Daddy. I didn't leave to get the camera, because I didn't want to miss any of the action, but you can be assured we'll be posting a video soon of Brooke taking some steps.

Grant - DC

2010-09-07T10:54:00.003-04:00

Near the Capitol building there are some statues as a memorial to Ulysses S. Grant.

On the steps of the Archives

Stay Tuned. . . .

2010-09-06T15:19:00.001-04:00

Stay tuned! I have many more pictures to post from our trip to Washington DC, including the Washington Monument, Capitol Building and more! We are definitely planning to go back sometime.

Various Photos - DC

2010-09-06T14:57:00.008-04:00

Archives of the United States of America

I actually saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constituion, Bill of Rights and various other documents from American history. To my dismay you can not take pictures of those documents. In an effort to preserve the inks from fading, the light is very dim and no flash photography is allowed. It is FREE to go to the National Archives.

Outside the National Archives building. . .

There were so many pretty details on the buildings.

I just knew you would want to know where this one was located! ;)

IRS

Pretty flowers

I hope our government remembers this! It's posted on the side of building just a couple of blocks from the Capitol.

We did a LOT of walking! We had no idea the National Mall was that long. Throw in some small children and a baby stroller and it made the walk that much longer!

Eisenhower Building

These photos were taken near the Vietnam Memorial.

I was glad to see that because our nearby city of Altoona has a miniature replica of this wall.
We took the boys to the Wall in Altoona on Memorial Day, and I was pleased that they had remembered that experience.

The Potomac River

I just loved the names of the streets in DC. ( It's the simple things in life!)

Lincoln Memorial - DC

2010-09-06T14:33:00.004-04:00

We took a quick family trip to Washington DC on Saturday. It was a glorious day for a road trip. We couldn't have asked for finer weather. It was my first time to visit our nation's capitol and I loved every moment of it. We spent the entire afternoon on the National Mall, and didn't even scratch the surface of all the things to see there.

The Lincoln Memorial was actually the last thing that we saw that day.
Once we got to the Lincoln Memorial I climbed a few of the steps and turned around. That's when I saw the Reflecting Pool, Washington Monument and the Capitol building together. It was just a poignant moment. We had been all the way down at the Capitol a few hours earlier, and now we were at the other end of the Mall.

Cole rarely keeps his feet on the ground!

On one wall inside the monument is the Gettysburg Address. On the opposite side is Lincoln's presidential speech.

This picture just makes me smile. I love seeing those boys standing in order like that. Just like stair steps!

As you can see from the picture below, there were people from many nationalities there. Hundreds of people were just sitting on the steps that day.

Here we are standing on the steps of the memorial. Behind us you could see the Washington Monument and the US Capitol building. The gal that graciously took our photo, needed to scoot over just a bit more to capture the sights. But the people in the picture are still cute! :)

Family Night

2010-09-06T14:20:00.004-04:00

We spent some time in the evening last week outdoors. The days were incredibly hot - in the 90's. We were pleasantly surprised when the evenings cooled down so nicely for us though. Thursday night the boys decided to do some tree climbing and football playing.

Trevor's beginning his ascent into the tree.

Logan didn't actually climb into any of the trees. But he was right there enjoying the action.

Cole was giving me his football game face. It's a blurry photo, but his expression is priceless!

Trevor made it up into the tree by our barn.

Of course no evening outdoors would be complete without trying to tie Dad up first!

So here are the teams: Daddy and Logan were the red team.

Next came the green team: Trevor and Cole.

They wanted me to be the official QB. I don't even know what an unofficial QB does! So Brooke and I decided to cheer on the sidelines instead. Here is the cheerleading team:

A couple of weeks ago we were at a park for a church picnic. We were in the pavilion and Brooke didn't want to be held, so I turned her loose on the concrete. It took her a couple of crawls on her knees before she figured out that wouldn't do. So she pushed her tush into the air and "crawled" on her hands and feet. Ever since that time, she's been doing this funny crawl. We call it her Spidey-crawl, because she seems to resemble Spiderman, crawling up the walls.

Grandpa & Grammy Pictures

2010-08-30T14:55:00.002-04:00

This post is lovingly dedicated to my dad. I put every, single, torturous picture on here, Dad. Enjoy!

I've entitled this slideshow "Oh The Joy!" because as you can see, taking pictures with a bunch of kids is SO MUCH FUN!

Create a free picture slideshow

Happy Campers

2010-08-30T11:27:00.004-04:00

Friday night we had a bonfire outside. (My husband must've been a pyromaniac in his first life, because he absolutely LOVES bonfires.) While he got the fire started I got dinner cleaned up and then Brooke and I joined the boys outside. It was actually a great night for a bonfire. It was a bit chilly and the fire was just right.

There were are few extra boxes and things to burn, but before we burned those boxes, the boys got a little more mileage out of them. Cole is so slim, he really can fit in one of these boxes.

What started out as an innocent bonfire soon turned into a camping activity! I'm not even sure how it happened, but somebody mentioned sleeping outside. We don't have a tent so I shot that idea down; too many wild animals out here. But then David got the bright idea to bring his truck over to the bonfire. He brought the full size mattress from Trevor's bed outside and the boys were all set.

I know you're all wondering. . . no, Brooke and I did not sleep outside. I was actually kind of sad about not sleeping out there under the stars. It was such a beautiful night. But I knew that little girl wouldn't get much sleeping done out there. And if Brooke isn't sleeping, then Momma probably isn't sleeping either! So to make sure that everybody was happy, I let the boys have their campout without us girls.

I know this was a great memory for the boys. They were up bright and early, stoking the fire and drinking hot chocolate out there. I'm sure they will do it again someday, but they'll have to give Dad some time to recover first! :)

Brooke Fest

2010-08-25T10:57:00.004-04:00

Our little Brooke is 14-months-old today. She really is such a sweetie and we all adore her at our house. She is a bit small for her age and is a late bloomer, but I honestly don't mind. I'm enjoying my baby as long as I can.

She still isn't walking. If you hold her hands she will walk along with you, and she will even walk if you just hold one of her hands. She's beginning to stand up all by herself also. Once in a while I'll catch her standing up in the living room just playing with a toy in her hands. I don't think she realizes what she's doing, but all the rest of us get excited to see her progress. You should see the boys get all thrilled each time she does something new. I don't think it'll be too much longer before we have an actual toddler in our house.

Brooke sprouted two lower teeth in July. She didn't seem to have any trouble with that, thank goodness!

I just love this big smile she has on her cute face! I just want to squeeze those cheeks when she does that. So cute!

This picture just cracks me up. We were out at the amusement park and it was a hot day. We were standing in line and I thought I'd take some pictures of Brooke on Daddy's shoulders. I just happened to snap the picture at the right second here.

All the boys dote on Brooke, but Cole definitely has a soft spot for her.

I love this little profile picture. Actually I love everything about that little darling!

Lakemont Park

2010-08-25T10:06:00.007-04:00

We went to Lakemont Park a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of our last hurrah before school started. Lakemont is a small, local amusement park. They have dollar days on Wednesdays throughout the summer, and of course that is good news for a family of our size! The kids had a great time, and even though it was a hot day, I enjoyed watching the kids have fun.

Cole didn't like the kiddie roller coaster!

Logan loved all the little rides. He could go again and again and again and . . . .!

This one was more Cole's speed.

David and Logan are waaaaaay up there.

It was in the high 90's that day. We cooled off with some slushees. Brooke wanted her fair share!

I just love this picture. Aren't they a cute pair?

We went on the Tin Lizzy cars and the boys got to drive. They were SO excited about driving real cars. Cole was David's chauffeur. Can you see how thrilled he was to be driving?

Trevor was my driver. You can tell by his giddy look of glee that he was having a good time being in the driver's seat. I said, "You could get used to this, couldn't you, Trevor." And he replied, "OH YEAH!"

Trevor's our daredevil when it comes to rides. He went on the big roller coaster with David, and he went on this ride by himself. He really enjoyed this park.

School Days

2010-08-25T09:47:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe that today is the first day of the school year for three of my boys. The summer went very fast for us. I am looking forward to being in a routine again, even though I may need to remind myself of that in a month or two!

For a couple of weeks now Cole has been praying for school to start soon. Today his prayers are answered! I homeschooled him for his kindergarten year of school, and we did a great job together. But he's been ready for a while to head next door to "Dad's school" so he could be with the other kids.

Of course they had some farm fresh eggs and toast for their first day of school.

Cole is getting ready to walk to school. Lucky for him it is not uphill both ways! It's right next door!

There he goes -- my cute little first grader!

And here's Trevor. . . When we shopped for him David picked this shirt out. Can any of you Ohio people figure out why?

He's starting his third grade year, even though he'll be happy to tell you that he's doing some fourth grade work.

And my third boy! Tee-hee! (I know some of you were wondering.) David's looking forward to a good school year for himself and the students. He spent quite a bit of time painting and preparing.

It's Been A While

2010-08-25T09:39:00.002-04:00

Hello! It's been a while since I've been on the blog. We have been keeping busy this last month of our summer vacation. We have been to amusement parks, state parks, shopping (of course!), decorating for school, and having a lot of out of town company. Today is actually the first day of school for the two big boys, so I may have some free time to get back to blogging. Of course there are a lot of pictures for me to post, so stay tuned in the next few hours and days for some blogging action. :)

Oregon Coast & Wildlife Safari

2010-07-31T20:45:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday of our vacation we went to the Oregon Coast. I forgot how breathtaking it is. . . . and how cold! Brrrr! When we got to Bandon it was 68 degrees according to the van's themometer. When we got near the ocean it was 58 degrees! It wouldn't have been so bad, but the wind was going full blast also. It made for a short trip to the coast!

Wednesday we went to the Wildlife Safari The Safari is a drive-thru wild animal park. It's pretty neat to be that close to the animals. You'll see a few pictures of the animals that we saw on the slideshow.

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Sleeping Under the Stars

2010-07-29T12:52:00.002-04:00

One of the nights that we were in Oregon, my boys wanted to sleep on the trampoline. So David, Trevor, Cole & Uncle Josh headed outside armed with blankets, flashlights and marshmallows. They even took a laptop computer out there so they could watch a movie! Talk about roughing it! LOL

They had a fire to keep them cozy. . . .

and to roast giant marshmallows.

Park Slideshow

2010-07-27T18:37:00.002-04:00

Here is another slidshow of our Saturday and Sunday last week. Saturday we had a family picnic. My uncle, aunt & cousin from Nebraska happened to be in Oregon at the same time we were. So we all got together Saturday night for some food and fun.

Sunday night after church we went to the park in town. My brother Joshua works for the city and he helped to put in all this new playground equipment. He wanted to show us his handywork. We packed a cooler and headed to the park after church. The boys had a great time playing around.

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A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village

2010-07-25T21:25:00.003-04:00

We went with my sister and her children to the A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village. It is a children's museum with plenty to see and do. Rather than try to pick and choose from the many, many photographs I took, I figured a slideshow would be fun. So sit back and enjoy our little tour! :)

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The Park

2010-07-25T20:13:00.004-04:00

The park is always a hit. After Grampa and Grammy headed home we walked to the park just a few blocks from my sister's new home. The kids had a great time playing there, and I got a few good photos in the process.

If there's even the slightest opportunity, Cole will be off the ground.

Kerilynn, Trevor (in the back), Cole & Logan

All the cousins + David

Dad's Antics

2010-07-25T20:00:00.004-04:00

Grampa got quite a good workout from the grandkids while we were there. Here are some photos of the kids, keeping Grampa busy:

You can see where this is going, right?

I love that you can see the moon in the background here.

And after the kids are done with him. . . .!

Meeting Grampa

2010-07-25T19:54:00.005-04:00

It was nice to finally touch down and be on solid ground again. This was the first time that Grampa and Aunt Jessica got to meet my Brooke. We first went to my sister's home in the Salem area. We stayed with her for the first few days of our trip. Grampa and Grammy came to get us from the airport, then we had a delicious grilled dinner.

Here's Dad with my nephew Joel. Joel is 2 weeks and 2 days older than Brooke. He is such a sweetie and he stole my heart.

Aunt Jessica & Brooke

Plane Ride

2010-07-25T19:50:00.002-04:00

Of course our trip started with a plane ride. Two of them, to be exact. We flew from Pittsburgh to Midway, then on to Portland. The kids love anything out of the norm, and flying is a great adventure for them. They did GREAT on each plane ride and I was so proud of them. I loved hearing all the good comments about our kids from the people around us.

Cole is always the one to give you a laugh.
After our first flight the pilot told Trevor he could come in and see the cockpit. Trevor was eating that up! Then the other boys filed in to see. The pilot was very nice to the boys, commented on their matching shirts and asked if we'd like a picture.

Stay Tuned!

2010-07-25T14:18:00.003-04:00

We got back from our Oregon vacation Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. (Yes, you read that correctly!) We had a good time, but the old saying is true: "There's no place like home." I wish I could bundle up my parents, sister, niece, nephew and the rest of my family and bring them out here to live nearby. I'm going to work on downloading some pictures and blogging soon, so stay tuned for some information about our trip.

Nana

2010-07-10T14:37:00.007-04:00

David's mom was able to come for a visit the week of Brooke's birthday. We didn't do too much while she was here; mostly enjoyed her company. We did get out of the house a few times to enjoy nature and go bowling.

One day we picnicked at Canoe Creek State Park.

Brooke and Nana wore matching shirts.

Brooke got the "mooch seat." She sat in the middle of the table and ate a little bit of everything.

I just love this one. Look at all those cute tooshies! :)

We took a short hike to the kilns but the boys paused for a photo op.

Here are the kilns. They were very interesting to see.

Of course you can't go to the park with boys and not end up playing hide-n-seek, or tag, or both! It was Trevor and Cole's turn to count.

Now it's their turn to hide!

After the hike the boys took a dip in the water. This swan came right over to us.

When he finally figured out we weren't going to feed him, he left.

This was when we first spotted the swan.

I wasn't expecting Brooke to go for a swim, but Daddy took her in for a while. All her things were in the diaper bag, so Nana improvised and put David's shirt on Brooke to keep her warm.

There's that cute little tongue again!

Later that night Cole taught Nana how to play Pictureka. I think Brooke was learning too.

Our park has $1 bowling on Wednesday afternoons. We took Nana to bowling that day.

We told Brooke to clap her hands, and she did!

Our Family

2010-07-10T12:37:00.002-04:00

We went to Canoe Creek State Park a couple of weeks ago got a few pictures after lunch. Not sure why, but you can always count on Cole to do something goofy!

Trevor, Cole, Logan

At least they're all looking, right?

Our Girl

2010-07-10T12:33:00.003-04:00

Here are some cute pictures of our little Brooke that were taken in the last couple of weeks. She's so much fun and we all just love her to pieces!

Not sure if she just ate a piece of grass or what, but that tongue is too cute!

There's that tongue again!The boys love to put her in the laundry basket and slide her around the room.

I love this one. She's checkin' out her handsome daddy.

She knows she's safe there.

Family Visit

2010-07-08T19:19:00.003-04:00

Last Thursday - Saturday we went to Cleveland for a whirlwind trip to visit David's family. All of his brothers and sisters were there with their families, as well as his parents. We packed a LOT into the 48 hours that we were there. We had Italian pasta (of course!) our first evening, a family picnic and portraits the next day, and some swimming and a BBQ at his uncle's home Saturday. It was a lot of fun.

Much to my chagrin the battery in my camera was dead! :( Boo-hoo! There were so many great memories and photo opportunities to record, and I missed them all. We did some family portraits at the park and this is one of all the grandkids. My three boys are dressed in blue, and Brooke is in the flag dress on the right.

Brooke Lauryn

2010-06-28T14:15:00.001-04:00

Here are some picture of Brooke over the weekend, wearing one of her birthday dresses.

With Nana

With Momma

To The Park

2010-06-28T14:11:00.004-04:00

We went to the park Friday night for Brooke's birthday. The boys had a great time running around chasing their dad and hiding from him. I didn't see the boys too much, but did get a few photos of them.

Cole

Trevor

Logan
Brooke stayed in the swings over an hour! She didn't fuss one time and just loved swinging.

What a mischievous little smile!

Birthday Cake

2010-06-28T14:06:00.002-04:00

Watching the boys laugh so hard while Brooke ate her cake was so fun. Cole was hilarious. Brooke enjoyed the cake, but didn't care for all that frosting on her fingers.